


A Murder Most Kind

by Jhoudiey



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Family Dynamics, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Personal Growth, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Discovery, Self-Doubt, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Self-Mutilation, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Walpurga Nacht Academy - Fanschool, crowley being an absolute fucking doofus, other twst characters going to show up in passing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28544184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jhoudiey/pseuds/Jhoudiey
Summary: After finding herself unable to attend her preferred school, Yoru finds herself skulking around NRC searching for a way to rid herself of her bird-like features. Crowley, being an absolute disaster of a Headmaster and father is of no help, so she finds herself forging friendships with an usual group of misfits to achieve her goal. A few brushes with death, a chaotic romance, and a handful of murders later, she may have finally found where she belongs.
Relationships: Azul Ashengrotto & Floyd Leech & Jade Leech & Original Character(s), Dire Crowley & Original Character(s), Floyd Leech/Original Character(s), Idia Shroud & Original Character(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19





	1. Stop calling me Nugget, a Prologue.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I've been wanting to add the current Yoru Lore (Loru) here for a while, but knew I had to add some parts from before where I jumped into the story on Tumblr. I've never really written a fic before starting the Yoru adventure, so please bear with any formatting/tagging errors for now! This is the prologue and it's set the summer before Yoru is supposed to start school (a year before where we started in game) to get a baseline for the rest of the story going forward! Please note, Walpurga Nacht Academy belongs to a friend of mine who has graciously let me borrow the setting for some added flavour! For more details on the school and her own work please visit girl-in-the-tower or walpurga-nacht-academy on tumblr or straybluebird here on AO3!

“Are you ready, Nugget?” Crowley asked, peeking his head through her bedroom door. Yoru sat crouched on the chair in front of her desk, frantically flipping through pages of notes and excerpts she’d copied from every textbook she could get her hands on. She wasn’t sure exactly what would be on the entrance exam for Walpurga Nacht Academy, but since she knew she would fail most of the practical magic exams she had to ace the written portion. No mistakes. She ran her blackened hand through her messy green hair, trying to shake out some of the tangles that had formed as she studied and looked backwards at Crowley. “Dad, stop calling me Nugget you know I hate it” She sighed and stretched out her legs in front of her, from her knees down she had the feet of a Harpy. Black feathers dotted her knees that spread to a thick scaly skin that reached all the way to her feet, where her legs ended in long talons. Crowley clapped his hands together in glee, approaching her “I can’t help it! The thought of my little girl going to write the entrance exam at the most esteemed women's academy! How exciting!” He peered over the peaks of her wings towards her scattered notes “That does look…. Hmmmm… difficult? No… that's not quite the word...AHA! Boring” He mused, hand on his chin. “But worry not my dear daughter! The Nisse Tomte will be here soon, and I have the utmost faith in you!” He clapped her on the shoulders and retreated. Yoru rubbed her face, sighing again. Crowley always seemed to come in with a burst of energy that left her drained. Since the disaster that was her last school she’d been searching for somewhere to complete high school where it wouldn’t matter that she was half harpy, somewhere she’d be able to focus on what magic she did know, and maybe finding a way to cure herself of her Harpy features. 

She heard a sharp knock on the door, it was time. One way or another, she’d prepared to the best of her abilities and only time would tell if it would be enough. The Nisse Tomte was already seated at the head of the dining room table when she made her way down the stairs. There were several books piled onto the chair for him to sit on so he had a full view of the table in front of him, exam paper laid out in front. He started to talk in a high pitched garble, Yoru at a complete loss for what he was saying. She hoped that Nissenese wasn’t a part of the exam. Crowley leaned in to speak over him “I think he’s saying that you have five hours for the exam, and not to cheat..that sort of stuff”. Yoru looked at him and raised an eyebrow, she hadn’t realized that Crowley understood him… though she realized that maybe he didn’t and had previously read the requirements for the exam. She stretched and sat down at the table, opening the exam booklet to read the first question. Oh. She glanced quickly at the remainder of the page, a grin slowly spreading across her face, she'd taught herself all of this in middle school. While the other children were learning basic spell composition, she was teaching herself the intricacies of alchemy and beyond. No way the entire test was going to be this easy, she thought to herself, quickly flipping to a few pages further along. Ahhhh, there was the meat of it, the test started off easy to lure one into a false sense of security, clever. She smiled and got to work, wondering if she’d be able to set a new personal record for how quickly she was able to finish an exam. 

As the test progressed she realized that she had underestimated it, it had gotten fiendishly difficult by the middle, and she struggled to remember some of the obscure dates required for the history of magic questions. She’d have to come back to those, if she had time. Yoru sighed and rubbed her eyes, she really should have expected this, WNA wouldn’t set an exam so easy that just anyone would be able to pass. “Time?” she asked the small gnome like man, watching her intensely. He answered and she remembered again that she couldn’t understand a word he was saying. “An hour and a half!” Crowley shouted from the kitchen, clearly having been hanging around in case she needed him. She wondered again if he was able to understand the little man. All that remained was the three-page essay on why magic was an important and necessary part of society. Easy enough to ramble about this one, even though she herself was inept at most forms of magic. Somehow she’d been born to the headmaster of Night Raven College, but couldn’t even manage to light a candle with magic. If she hadn’t had talons, large feathery wings, and black sclera, one might have thought she wasn’t magical at all. As she finished adding her final answers the Nisse Tomte stood up and held out his hand for the exam. She breathed a sigh of relief, having finished the paper just in time. She didn’t beat her previous exam time, but she managed to answer everything correctly...she hoped. The gnome shuffled from the room and disappeared out the front door. Crowley shuffled in from the kitchen beaming “How was it Nugget!? I spied on you while you were writing! You looked so intense, it was so exciting! How can we celebrate? I know! Let’s visit the village for dinner! There’s a restaurant that makes a lovely Venison stew I’ve been dying to try…” He looked at Yoru, laying with her arms outstretched on the table in front of her. “No thanks, I don’t really feel like being stared at by a bunch of strangers today. Just bring me something back, I’ll be on the roof” She stood up and lazily dragged herself up the stairs. “Well… she did say it was okay for me to go myself…” Crowley mused to himself, wringing his hands “Surely she’s fine… I will just bring back some extra stew for her. How lovely dinner will be!” He exclaimed with a dramatic flourish and swept out the front door towards the promise of meat. 

Yoru sat crouched on the roof feeling the hot July air on her face as she looked out into the forest. Her and Crowley lived in a small cottage in the woods behind the school, he said it was reminiscent of the one the Beautiful Queen had traveled to and as such thought it was charming. She sighed, thinking about the exam, worrying if she’d managed to get everything correct, agonizing over the few questions she hadn’t been sure about and had to guess on. She leaned back on the roof, bracing herself with her talons and looked up to the sky, there were a lot of crows milling about, the campus of Night Raven Academy always seemed to have an abundance of crows. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes, activating her Unique Magic, Crow Sight. She was able to see through the eyes of every crow within a 3 kilometer radius, though seeing that much at once was dizzying. She narrowed her focus to the crows flying around the campus buildings. She watched the students that had arrived early on campus go about their day, she wondered why someone would return to school so far in advance… but perhaps their home lives were just boring and the campus offered them an exciting escape. She began to worry again about her exam and lost focus in the birds, her vision returning to her own eyes. Her stomach growled and she regretted not joining her father for dinner, venison stew did sound delicious, but with how worried she was about whether she passed the exam or not she wouldn’t be able to handle the whispers about her wings, eyes, hands, or feet well so knew it was best to stay hidden. 

She awoke with the gentle weight of birds stepping on her, she’d fallen asleep on the roof waiting for Crowley to return. She crawled back in through her bedroom window, landing lightly on the floor hoping to catch a sniff of dinner. It was already dark out and she wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep, Crowley must have returned hours ago. She found him asleep in front of the television, a game of Magical Shift on in the background, it seemed as if he had eaten too much at dinner and exhausted himself. Yoru chuckled and covered him with a blanket and crept towards the kitchen. She opened the fridge to find a few containers with a label that read “for my Nugget”. She rolled her eyes wishing that he’d drop the stupid nickname already, she wasn’t a child anymore! She sat at the table, eating the food right out of the containers. Even cold it was delicious, she’d have to accompany him the next time he went to the village, maybe the villagers would stare at him in his ludicrous top-hat and feathered jacket instead of her… on the other hand… did she want to be seen with him wearing that same ludicrous hat and feathered jacket? What if they passed a shop and he decided they should match? She laughed out loud to herself, continuing her feast of cold venison. 

***

Yoru had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. The date of the practical exams had arrived, and she knew that this was likely to be her downfall. Despite all her practice, she’d never managed to perfect even basic spells. Elemental and transformative magic seemed completely beyond her reach. She was able to identify most plants, potions, and poisons from look alone, but still hadn’t accomplished even the most basic of spells like changing the colour of a flower, or making a feather levitate. She once joked with her teacher that since she had feathers and could fly she was very capable of making MANY feathers levitate at once and shouldn’t fail the test on that alone, but her teacher didn’t like her tone and failed her anyway adding a detention on top of the failing grade. She knew the physical portion at the end of the test would be easy, a 5 kilometer endurance test was nothing, she often trained more than that with Coach Vargas when she found time. Despite not being a student at NRC, she’d grown up on campus and had become close with the over exuberant physical education teacher, he was one of the only ones who had seen her bird body and thought it marvelous rather than a curse, and convinced her to get trained up to be in peak physical condition. The hopeful students lined up at the beginning of the track set out for the race, snippets of nervous chattering breaking through Yoru’s concentration. No way she’d let anyone beat her at a race...she realized that she likely wouldn’t be able to fly for any potion of it though, significantly cutting down her speed. She readied herself and launched herself forward when the signal sounded, even without the wings to help her along, her grip on the ground meant she was able to push off faster and farther than anyone else. Keeping her wings idle was her biggest challenge, she didn’t want to be disqualified for cheating, even if it was accidental. She kept them pressed firmly together, frustrated knowing that she’d be done already if this wasn’t a foot race. Yoru made it across the finish line before all the other hopefuls either way, and finally shook her wings out. She hadn’t realized how tense her shoulders were from holding them in place for a little over the ten minutes it took her to complete the race. 

She grinned to herself knowing that at least if she struggled with the practical portion, she had at least aced the physical. She watched the other students cross the finish line in various levels of disarray, wondering how normal people would feel about training for something like this, she smiled every time one of the other students glared at her for being finished so soon, and not struggling to catch her breath. The health check she passed with flying colours, she’d have to make sure to thank Vargas for all his hard work training with her when she got home. She knew, however, that the biggest struggle was still to come. She hoped that the tasks she was set to perform would be more alchemy leaning than practical magic leaning so she didn’t completely bomb. As the testing began she started feeling like she might be sick. There was a burning in her chest and she felt light headed, she wasn’t fond of being in large groups, and being in a large group where she knew she was going to embarrass herself was weighing on her heavily. She was watching all the other students before her perform each task admirably, realizing she’d be able to block their view with her wings if she stood just right, perhaps she’d be able to avoid complete humiliation if she were careful. Her name was called and she walked to the front of the group, a ball of nervousness sitting heavy in her stomach. The whispers of “that’s the bird that cheated during the race- I wonder how she’ll do on this part” didn’t escape her. She positioned herself in front of the examiner and flared her wings open a little to completely cover the view of the table from behind. 

“Identify and arrange these mushrooms from most to least poisonous”. Easy. First stage cleared.  
“Read the ingredients list and determine what poisons can be made with them, then tell us what one would need to create an antidote” Easy. Second stage cleared.  
“Make this chair levitate” Shit. This is where things were going to fall apart. She struggled to muster enough magic to move the chair even a fraction of an inch, it stayed in place despite her best efforts.  
“Light the wick of this lantern without breaking the glass” Shit. She still hadn’t even managed to light a candle with magic, there was no way she’d be able to light one around a glass encasing. She grimaced at the examiner and shook her head. She felt like she was going to throw up. All of her studying meant nothing if she couldn’t perform these basic tasks.  
“Change the colour of this apple” Yoru clenched her jaw. There was no way she’d be able to change it’s colour, but she wasn’t ready to completely give up. “I refuse. That apple is already the optimal colour for freshness. Any change of it’s skin would alter our perception of the flavour, muddying it’s appeal.” The examiner raised an eyebrow at her refusal.

The Nisse dismissed her, that would be enough from Miss Yoru Crowley. She nodded and flew away, searching for the nearest mirror so she would be able to return to NRC before her worries got the better of her. Crowley was waiting for her in the mirror chamber, pacing back and forth waiting for her arrival. “How did it go!?” He asked frantically, wringing his hands. She just shook her head and sighed, walking silently out of the room to go brood on whatever rooftop offered her the most privacy. She knew she failed the practical portion of the exam, she knew she would, but didn’t feel any better getting confirmation of how useless she was in a world where magic reigned. She watched the sun set over the edge of campus, wondering what had possessed her to think she was good enough to take the entrance exam for a school focused on magic. She should have just swallowed her pride and gone to the high school in the village, wings and bird feet be damned. She sighed and curled her arms around her knees, really what was she thinking, taking a test about magic, thinking she could pass it. 

***

As the week wore on, Yoru found herself getting more agitated while waiting for correspondence from the school. On the 7th day it was such that she was unable to sit still, and spent the day flying around campus watching for any sight of one of the mechanical dolls bearing her acceptance letter. As the sun set, she found herself seated on the roof of Ramshackle Dorm, watching through as many crows as she could, in case she had somehow missed the dolls’ arrival earlier. She watched the sun set from a hundred pairs of eyes, no acceptance letter anywhere to be found. She stood up slowly and stepped off the roof, opening her wings to catch herself before she hit the ground. She made her way back to her house, dragging her feet, ruminating on the idea that she wasn’t good enough and was foolish to think she’d maybe eked out a passing grade. The stairs creaked as she ascended, Crowley calling up after her, which she ignored. He huffed, being the father of a moody bird was sometimes not the easiest task. He knocked on her door and peeked his head in, she was laying face down on her mattress, she hadn’t even bothered to pull a blanket over herself. “You okay Nugget?” he asked. “No” she mumbled, her voice barely escaping from the mattress. Crowley nodded to himself, unsure of what else to do, he tried to speak a few more times but when he found himself at a loss for words he turned to leave. “Hey dad?” a muttered plea escaped the mattress “Yes Nugget?” “Can’t I just come to NRC?” Crowley frowned, the weight of his words heavy in his chest. “I’m sorry Nugget, but no. NRC is an all boys school, I can’t change the rules simply because you’re my daughter” he waited for a response, hoping she wouldn’t hate him for saying so. “Kay. Whatever. I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. Good night”. He nodded again though she couldn’t see him and walked quietly from her room, closing the door behind him.

She stayed face down on the mattress as her room grew dark around her, the clanging bells of failure ringing in her head. Why had she ever thought that a bird without magic would be able to get into a prestigious magic school? And why had she ever thought that Crowley would be so kind to change the rules of his school just because she asked him. She supposed that she could always make a potion to change her gender so that she could attend, but found the idea too disingenuous to really go through with it. Yoru spent the night cursing herself, the failings of her research, and her stubborn Harpy blood. Spending years reading, researching and developing her Unique Magic mattered not when the bar to succeed was set so high above where she could reach. She sighed, knowing that attending the regular school would never be an option, she’d never be satisfied learning only the mundane musings of regular people. 

*** 

“NUGGET! NUGGET! ITS HERE!” Crowley burst through her door without any decorum. Yoru groaned and rolled over to face him, wondering why the hell he was being so loud so early in the afternoon. He was holding a black box in his hand out towards her “Its here! Your acceptance! They couldn’t find you at your school so they thought to bring it here to try and find you!” Yoru shot up in bed and grabbed the box from his hand, noting the intricate carving of witches dancing around a fire on it. “No way...after I thought….” She cracked the box out and pulled out the admission letter, scanning through it as quickly as possible. “I… I did it…” she looked at Crowley, face still unsure what to do with the barrage of emotions she was feeling. She stared at the letter, almost unwilling to believe it was real, after the botched practical exams she figured there would have been witches more worthy of admission… “NUGGET YOU DID ITTTT!!” Crowley shouted pulling her out of bed and spinning her around in a circle. “Now we shall celebrate! Get dressed! We are going for dinner and you can’t say no this time!” He was nearly skipping when he left the room, Yoru finally letting herself be overwhelmed by the wave of happiness that had been threatening to burst forward. Crowley treated them to a dinner of fried chicken and they chatted happily all throughout their meal, ignoring the questioning looks by strangers wondering about the morality of bird people eating chicken. 

***

The Witches Dance were set to take place a week before the entrance ceremony, Yoru had been looking forward to them since well before she had even written the exams. They were a historical part of the school, though they had been tamed down in the more recent years. She’d asked Crowley to tell her what they were about, but he was only able to give the most vague of answers, she suspected he was making it all up. She had built up a bundle of tense energy leading up to the Witches Dance, so when she finally arrived at WNA Yoru could barely stand still. She had her notebook ready to take notes on all the dorms so she’d be able to choose the one that would fit her best. She edged closer to the front of the group of young witches, hoping to get a better view, hyper aware of the girls muttering about her wings blocking the view for them. Yoru tried to ignore them, but eventually ended up stepping back from the front of the group, as she retreated she passed a girl with long red hair and what seemed to be teeth jutting from it. “Cool hair” she muttered as she walked passed “cool wings” was the reply she heard before losing her in the crowd completely. She found herself near the back, she could still hear what was happening at the front but her line of sight was partially blocked by the various bobbing heads and shoulders. She activated her Unique Magic in one of her eyes, her left iris clouding over in black. She narrowed the sight to only 5 crows that were perched near where the dances would take place. This way she’d be able to watch from 6 vantages and still take notes without making herself sick by trying to do too much at once. 

As dusk settled, the bonfire blazed and the Danse Macabre began. The students danced in dizzying circles around the flames, erratic and spastic. There were shouts and chanting, Yoru found herself excited that she could possibly be a part of something so animalistic and so refined at once, realizing that maybe she would finally be at a school where she would be able to thrive with students considered as her equal. By the time the dance finished, Yoru realized she’d been holding her breath. As the headmistress began her address to the students, Yoru realized for the first time in a long time she was well and truly excited to be out in public somewhere, she was excited to see what the dorms had to offer, and readied her notebook. The dorm leader of Rosenhex had taken the stage and launched into her dance of charms and enchantments, Yoru jotting down in her notebook that while flashy, she’d be unable to do anything that was presented to her and wrote a quick “no point” near the dorm description. The Grimmaire prefect walked on stage, Yoru thought she looked a little stiff, then when the witch launched into a monologue of spells and their composition, Yoru jotted down a brief “boring” next to the other notes she’d taken. Kreigskalds' prefect was at least more interesting to watch, but Yoru had trouble with technology and wasn’t likely to succeed, but took down detailed notes because the construction of armour and the likes was at least an interesting thought. Galdtrea she found more interesting, Yoru could feel the interest of the other witches slipping away as the dorm prefect described the uses and methods of procurement for many magical plants, she wrote down a “could be very useful” next to the dorm name. Monarchia presented a variety of beasts for the waiting witches, Yoru found her eyes growing wide. She could handle animals, and had found she was already fairly proficient in animal languages, and jotted down “I can fit here” into her notes. Oraluna’s dance was very strange to Yoru, she wasn’t fond of magic that could see or predict the future, and when they called girls from the crowd to have their fortunes seen she bristled at the thought of not having control over her future. She wrote a solid “no” in her notebook near her very bereft notes. Eliksia seemed to have a feel similar to Crewels' classes that Yoru had spied on growing up, though much more wild. There was mention of human experimentation that piqued her interest more than it probably should. She took more than a page of notes, writing “could be the solution”, and patiently waited for the final dance to begin. The beginning of Noctasis’ dance was the most dramatic of them until then, the prefect making a show of her entrance and love of the damned. Yoru found herself nearly unable to keep up with note taking as the dance progressed, there was a lot shown, and a lot of it being of interest to her. She finished with a flourish and “not even death will stop the pursuit of knowledge”. Yoru felt satisfied with her notes, but was glad to have a week to decide on a dorm, she hadn’t expected so many choices to interest her. She returned home with a notebook full of scribbles and a head full of confused thoughts. 

The next week found her muttering to herself at every turn, Crowley looking at her concerned when he found her wandering in circles or sitting in a tree talking to herself, face buried in her notes. She’d crossed out Kreigskald on her first day home, as interesting as it was, she really felt like she wouldn’t be able to keep up. She’d debated a long time about Galdtrea, deciding that she was able to get all the plant knowledge she needed from Crewel and from watching the boys at NRC in her free time that she didn’t need to dedicate any more time to it. Noctasis had initially taken ahold of her from the witch dances, she had a difficult time getting the image of the pale girl that looked like a ghoul alight with passion for the macabre out of her head, but realized that there was magic needing to be done that was well out of her grasp, and she gave up the idea, sighing at the thought of the lost black dorm colours. It was a small thing, but she’d never liked the red of her elementary and middle school, so was taken in by the call of black. She was having trouble deciding between Monarchia and Eliksia, on one hand, working with beasts usually came naturally to her, being half Harpy herself. On the other hand the promise of experimentation beyond what was normally considered acceptable intrigued her too, and since it was alchemy based she didn’t need to worry about her lack of transfigurative or elemental magic. The last days before the sorting ceremony ticked away, Yoru still unable to settle on a dorm. Crowley had tried to help her choose, but when she explained her thought process behind each one, he seemed to get uncomfortable and wouldn’t give her a straight answer. She was unable to wheedle out of him his reasoning for being immature about the dorms she’d chosen. She wasn’t sure if it was the mentions of mass nudity common for Monarchia or the self experimentation of Eliksia. She was glad that his opinion didn’t actually matter and she’d choose one way or another at the sorting ceremony. 

“Nugget are you excited! I made breakfast!” Crowley had burst into her room at the crack of dawn, spatula waving freely in his hand. If Yoru had been able to sleep, she would have been annoyed with her fathers constant dramatics, especially early in the morning, but she’d found herself unable to sleep. She WAS excited. She’d been up all night at her desk making notes and lists between the two dorms she still couldn’t choose between, at this point both lists rivaled some of the textbooks in NRCs library. She followed Crowley to the kitchen where he’d laid out two plates, laden with a breakfast she knew he didn’t actually make. “So the ghosts made breakfast then?” She chuckled, sitting down staring at all the dishes she knew Crowley had at one point in her life tried and failed to make. Crowley raised the spatula, using it as if it were a pointer “Of course! But I plated everything here, so that counts!!” He sat with a dramatic flourish and began to eat, chatting happily about how excited he was that his sweet baby Nugget was finally going to go to a school where she fit in and would be able to make friends. He had been worried that her spending all her time alone growing up had done some damage to her ability to socialize, but he was sure she’d be fine. What was high school if not the perfect place to make new friends! 

Yoru packed a few essentials and used the magic mirror to travel back to the WNA campus just before dusk, ready for the sorting. She wasn’t sure what to expect, and was worried about how the dorms worked, she’d never had to share a room before...at least not since she’d been sent home from elementary school boarding due to an unfortunate incident with her belongings and another students broken nose. She was really beginning to look forward to being a part of a sisterhood, she hoped the girl with the neat hair chose the same dorm she did...if she was ever able to settle on one. She arrived at the school, a knot of nerves bundled in her stomach once more. As she arrived in the garden she was handed a clear quartz gem, a nervous smile spreading itself across her face. She’d never had a magical gem before. She didn’t think she ever really needed one since her magical abilities were so poor, but it was nice to have one nonetheless. She spotted the girl with the neat hair in the crowd of witches and stood beside her, “So... uhhh… hi. what dorm are you going to go for?” she asked, hoping the girl didn’t mind her just speaking to her. The girl glanced at Yoru, tearing her attention away from the Chalice where the girls had started to get sorted. “Kriegskald” She muttered, turning back to the sorting. “Ah. Um. K. Bye then” Yoru muttered, stepping away, making friends was way harder than Crowley had made it seem. What the hell was she supposed to do? Clearly just striking up a conversation was a bust. She was so focused on the mysteries of friendship she almost missed her name being called, she’d nearly forgotten she herself hadn’t chosen yet and the uncertainty of which dorm she wanted to choose came flooding back.

Yoru stood in front of the chalice as it flashed the dorm colours, heartbeat loud in her ears, how does anyone choose between dorms? Rich plum. Sky blue. Striking crimson. Calming lavender. Homely beige. Deepest prussian. Forest green. Deepest black. She got lost in the flurry of colours, all of them blending together to sing the chorus of her future. She couldn’t say how long she stared into the flickering Chalice, the colours reflecting against the black sclera of her eyes. “Eliksia'' she muttered as if coming out of a trance. The flickering had stopped, her gem absorbing the green of the water. A quick outburst of laughter broke the silence, a hissed hush following shortly after. Yoru felt a knot in her stomach form again; a wave of shame washed over her, maybe this school wouldn’t be so different from her last one after all. She walked back into the crowd of waiting witches, wishing she had been paying more attention to the other girls that had chosen her same dorm so she could try and approach them. Yoru focused on the remainder of the girls waiting to be sorted, wondering if any of them were due to be her roommate. They were led back to their dorm by the dorm leader after the sorting had ended, she felt someone small brush by her muttering “there are..many interesting...things… on land… after all… '' she wasn’t sure if it was a student or another creature of sorts on the staff, the person had disappeared into the crowd so easily. Yoru searched around the lounge as the dorm leader explained the finer details of the dorm, where they’d sleep, what time they woke up, how to pick their electives, and handed out class schedules. Her eyes lingered on the shelves on the walls, completely covered in potions. She made a mental note to come check what all of them were later, trying to decide if the greenish hue of the room reminded her more of the sea or a deep forest, despite the moving wallpaper of deep sea creatures. The Nisse Tomte came in near the end of the speech, the dorm leader explaining that they would take the measurements for their uniforms and that they would be ready in the morning. She let herself be led to her dorm room where she arranged the few possessions she did bring, her roommate not seeming too pleased she’d have to share with a bird. Despite her roommates reluctance to speak to her, she crawled into her bed, happy to be away from home for the first time in many years. 

She awoke much earlier than was necessary, her excitement getting the better of her again. Yoru spied her uniform sitting on the chair in her half of the room, springing out of bed she eagerly tried to try it on. She realized as she struggled to get dressed, that the Nisse Tomte hadn’t left any openings for her wings on her uniforms. She accidentally woke her roommate up trying to force her wings through her shirt with no luck, they were bulky but not sharp, there was no way they’d pierce through the fabric. Her roommate sighed and helped her rip holes into the back of her uniform, bemoaning that the tears looked awful and that she’d have to take it to a seamstress right away cause the Headmistress wouldn’t allow it. Yoru looked at herself in the mirror, the tears in her clothing not visible from the front, her uniform boots remained untouched on the floor. “Crowley!” Her prefect called out to her after morning cleaning was underway “Where are your boots?” she looked at Yoru’s feet, talons flush against the floor. She raised her eyebrow “they’re in my room? How do you suppose I’m going to wear them with feet like this?” The dorm prefect looked at her, expressionless “And you’ve ripped your shirt too. Alterations of the uniform are not allowed at this school”. Yoru felt herself getting frustrated with the girl. She knew the rules, but how was she supposed to wear a uniform that wasn’t meant for a bird when she was cursed by the parts of a bird? “Go see the Headmistress. I’m not sure what to do with you” the prefect waved her away and continued on with her own cleaning and seeing to the questions of the new students. 

Yoru stomped from the dorm, mad at how easily she was dismissed. It was her first day of school and already sent to the Headmistress for something completely out of her control? This was ridiculous. She wandered around the halls for a while before realizing she didn’t know where the Headmistress’s office actually was, and wished she had a map. “Are you lost, child of Crowley?” a voice sounded from behind her. Yoru wheeled around and saw no one, but a cat walking blithely toward her. “How do you know I’m Crowleys?” she asked him, feeling strange talking so freely with a cat. It wasn’t often they spoke the same language. “You look just like him, child, follow me I’ll lead you to the Headmistress”. “Thanks cat”. He turned around to face her, raising a feline eyebrow. “You may call me Alkin” he turned back around and continued to lead her to her fate. When they arrived he waited patiently at the door for Yoru to knock and open the door, he jumped up onto her desk and stared at Yoru, somehow she felt as if he was looking down on her despite still being much shorter than her even with the boost in height. Yoru recognized the Headmistress from the entrance ceremony, and was hit by the sheer power of her presence. Unlike her father, she felt that this was a woman that she wouldn’t be able to talk back to without consequence, she gulped. “I hear you have had some uniform issues, Miss Crowley”. She nodded and took a deep breath. “I had to cut holes for my wings” She said, turning around to show her the mutilated blouse “and I can’t wear the boots” she lifted her leg and flexed her foot, talons shining in the light. “And there is no way for you to remove those features? We do not allow uniform alterations in this school”. Yoru was taken aback “at all? How am I supposed to wear it if I can’t get it over my body? There are other beastwomen at this school and they’re allowed...” Ursa Astoria stared at her from across the desk, a slight smile playing on her lips “That is not my problem to solve, Yoru Crowley. The other beastwomen are able to wear the uniforms as they were made upon the creation of this school. Unfortunately, until you are able to meet those same standards, you are unable to attend this academy. I will give you one week to comply with the dress code or I will have to ask you to leave” She nodded slightly, Yoru recognizing the dismissal. 

She walked down the hallway, lost in her own head. After everything she’d done to get here, the thing that was going to stop her was the one problem she hadn’t been able to solve. She’d chosen Eliksia in hopes she’d be able to find a cure for her bird legs and her wings, but now she wasn’t even allowed to attend because of them. She felt the bile rising up in her throat as she walked back to her dorm room to collect what possessions she had brought with her. There was no point staying longer than she had to, she knew there was no way she’d be able to fit into regular boots or shirts in a week. She’d already been experimenting for over a year and hadn’t managed to cure a single thing. She gathered her things, leaving her uniform boots in her room and walked to the mirror that would take her back home. Crowley heard a faint thumping from above him, absolutely certain there was an intruder in his home, he flew up the stairs at top speed, throwing Yoru’s bedroom door open with a crash. He found her sitting on her bed, staring at her feet stretched out before her. “N-Nugget?” He asked “Why are you home? Are you not starting school today?” She didn’t look up when she shook her head, keeping her eyes focused on her feet. “I can’t. I’m not allowed.” She muttered, refusing to meet his gaze. “What!? Why not!? That Miss Astoria! What did she say?” Yoru sighed, quickly glancing at him “I don’t fit the uniform properly because of my stupid wings and my stupid feet. So I can’t go.” “That’s preposterous!” Crowley objected “I’ll go talk to Miss Asoria right away! No way my Nugget can’t go to school because she’s got cute little birdy feet! Absolutely not!” He sat down on the bed next to her in a huff. “So unfair, Miss Astoria should know better, telling my Nugget no. How dare she!” he muttered to himself. Yoru kicked her feet out a little bit “I could always just go to NRC, I already live here…” She asked again, hoping she wouldn’t have to relive the embarrassment of WNA again. “No no. You’ll go to your school, you worked hard to get in! I will go talk to Miss Astoria! I shall convince her that you should attend, and that discrimination is VERY rude!” He stood up dramatically and crossed his arms. He didn’t move. Minutes ticked by on the clock, Yoru growing more amused the longer he waited. “Aren’t…..aren’t you going to go?” She asked quietly after a quarter of an hour. Crowley deflated before her “Please give me time, my Nugget, Miss Astoria is...!” He swung his arms a few times as if to loosen up. “Okay. Here I go! Off to help my Nugget. Off to talk to Miss Astoria…” He sat back down on the bed beside her. “Okay, maybe a few more minutes, she’s VERY scary!” Yoru cracked a smile, unintentionally, Crowley had managed to cheer her up just a little bit.


	2. What the hell kind of nickname is that?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guilted into watching the NRC sorting ceremony, Yoru finds herself being harassed. Is this how friends are made?

Yoru waited on the roof of NRC for Crowley’s return. He said he was going to talk to the Headmistress of her school and try to convince her to let Yoru attend...though she didn’t have high hopes. Crowley wasn’t especially talented in the art of having convincing arguments. She split her vision between the campus crows again, watching the students mill around, getting lost, and in some cases falling over as if learning to walk for the first time. The sun had set before Crowley returned, poking his head out of the window below the ledge she was sitting.  
“Nugget! I have news!” he gestured for her to join him inside, he wasn’t as fond of sitting on the roof as his daughter. She crawled down through the window, raising an eyebrow hoping for good news. “Miss Astoria said you can attend!” He clapped his hands together smiling, Yoru’s jaw dropped, but Crowley continued before she could speak “However! You may not attend classes until you can comply with the uniform standards! You’ll meet with your dorm prefect once a week on Fridays to turn in the week's homework, and collect what you’ll need for the next week! I have this week's work for you here!” He brandished a folder full of papers at her. “Also, you will have a meeting with Miss Astoria on the last day of every month to discuss your progress, you will need to keep your grades in good standing if you want to remain a student.” Yoru nodded along to his speech as he counted off on his fingers all the things he had meant to tell her. “Oh! And you can watch through your crows for classes, and are permitted to use campus facilities on the days you meet with your prefect. I think that was it” Crowley looked at her and smiled, proud he had done such a good job. 

Yoru grabbed the folder of papers from him and flipped through it, checking to see what her course-load would be like “There’s no info in here about how I choose my electives…” she muttered, hoping she’d just missed something, she had been hoping to expand her knowledge of animal languages. “Ahhhhh I knew I forgot something” he sighed “Miss Astoria said that you won’t be permitted any electives until you are fully able to attend school, as she believes the classes would be too hard to manage without guidance…but you can always ask the staff here if you have questions about your homework!” Yoru ruffled her wings angrily, bristling at the thought her headmistress thought she wouldn't be able to manage. “I guess I can live with that, it’s better than nothing” Crowley clapped her on the shoulder, beaming “You’ll have extra time to spend with me then! You can even help around NRC! I’m sure we can find something for you to do!” She shook his hand off her shoulder and started to climb out the window again “Nah, you’re going to have to convince some poor student of yours to do whatever odd jobs you don’t want to hire anyone for. If I don’t have electives, that gives me more time to work on myself. Thanks dad” She jumped out the window and flew off into the night, headed towards the alchemy storage lab. She had a new list of potions and ingredients to try and wanted to make sure Crewel had everything she needed. 

***

She spent the next few days finishing up the last of her assigned homework, being that it was the first week it was more of an introduction to the classes rather than anything in depth… Except for the extra alchemy assignment. It had requested that students submit a potion of their own creation that either enhances one that is currently available or had never been discovered before, if they could manage to make one. Yoru, never one to turn down a challenge, had spent the week experimenting with new ingredients in order to get the potion she was working on to a state she could call complete. The day of the NRC sorting ceremony dawned, Crowley being more meddlesome than ever. “Nugget! Will you watch the sorting!? You need to meet the new first years!” As always, he had burst through her door, far too early in the morning for it to be natural, theatrical as ever. She had been up all night researching and glared at him from where she sat hunched at her desk. “No. Why would I? Nothing ever happens and they take forever. I’ve got better things to do'' She turned back to the book she had been flipping through, knowing that the sorting ceremony was the perfect time to break back into the chemical storage room, all of the staff and students would be gathered in the mirror chamber so she’d be able to work uninterrupted. Over the last week she found herself being walked in on by various students exploring campus and it was beginning to get troublesome, she didn’t want to be seen around campus and the fewer people that knew of her the better. She was no stranger to people trying to make friends with her to get into Crowleys’ good graces, and although those attempts were always short lived, she never forgot the feeling of being told that they never cared about her and just wanted approval from her father. When she was younger she had wished that Crowley wasn’t so stubborn and would entertain their whims so that she could pretend she had friends, though gullible as he was, for some reason he never fell for their flattery. 

“Well Yoru, you’ll need to meet the students at some point! As a student of Walpurga Nacht Academy, you’ll need to find a date by the spring for the annual Debutante Ball!” He casually walked into the room and leaned up against her bookshelf, smiling at her. She spun her head towards him, no one had mentioned that there was anything like that at WNA. “What did you say? Can I skip it?” Crowley shook his head emphatically, “of course you can’t. It’s a very important day in every young witch's life! Once a year you come together with the young men from Night Raven College and Royal Sword Academy for a night of networking, dancing, and frivolities!” Yoru stared at him, not knowing which part of his sentence she found the most repulsive. Crowley looked at her, a smile growing on his face “that sour look on your face tells me you’re MOST excited at the prospect, which is why I suggest you watch our sorting ceremony later this evening! After I so kindly told you about the dance, you can at least repay me with a few hours of your time!” He put his hand to his chest in a gesture of mock kindness. Crowley knew that there would be no way she’d find the idea of any sort of dance enticing, but he was really hoping she’d at least watch the ceremony to at least try and find someone she dubbed worthy of making friends with. She rolled her eyes at him and sighed. “Fine. I’ll watch it. At least some of it, make sure you leave one of the windows open so I can ask a crow to fly in here”. He clapped his hands together and jumped slightly in glee. “Of course my Nugget!” he strode from the room muttering to himself “My little girl is going to find so many new friends today, I’m so excited for her”. Yoru sighed again, wondering what she had done in a previous life to be cursed with a lifetime of Crowley as her father. 

Yoru made sure she was near the chemical storage building for when the sorting was set to start, the moment the students started flowing back into the school she flew in through one of the windows and got to work. True to her word, she was watching the sorting, but barely. She had asked one crow to watch the festivities, but only kept her left eye clouded over and closed to watch the ceremony. She was so focused on her potion that she barely saw the commotion a student caused by ripping his robe off and storming out of the chamber, her fixation on her work muting the sounds of that same student creeping into the building, having seen the flickering lights through the windows while wandering around campus. “Huuuuh? Why aren’t you at the ceremony?” the voice whined, cutting through her concentration, spooking her. Yoru fluffed her wings at the sudden intrusion, deflating when she realized it was an errant student that had wandered in. She stared at him standing too close to her, his robe nowhere to be seen, dress shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest as he glared down at her. She took a half step back. Shit, he was tall. “Shouldn’t you?” she replied, looking through the crow, confirming that the ceremony was still in disarray due to his departure. He raised an eyebrow at her and stepped up to peer into the cauldron she was working in. “Ehhhhh it was so boring just standing there” he sighed “these clothes are so restrictive, and this body is too heavy. What are you doing, Fugu-chan? This looks fun”. She was taken aback at the casual familiarity he displayed with her, what was with the nickname? When she didn’t answer he looked sideways at her and frowned “heeeeh? Fugu-chaaaan can you not hear me?” and waved a hand in front of her face. She swatted it away and took a step back from him, uncomfortable with how close he’d gotten to her in his quest to see what she was up to. “Yea, I can hear you, but why are you here?” He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her. “I already told you. I’m bored, play with me.”

Yoru didn’t know how to respond to him, his playful friendly tones had dropped to something much deeper and threatening but she wasn’t sure what he meant by it. She knew if she fought him Crowley would be mad, but she wasn’t sure what he meant when he told her to go make friends. She stared at him, trying to find a way out of the situation that didn’t end with her putting another student in the hospital “ummm… no? I’m busy. Go find someone else to play with” She edged back towards the cauldron, her mixture bubbling away. The boy let out a whine and rubbed his neck “but Fugu-chan, I wanna play with you, entertain me!.... What are you doing anyway? Is that a strengthening solution? Cause you’re making it wrong” he glanced at the potion and the ingredients she’d laid out and shrugged at her. “I’m not, it’s fine” she said absentmindedly, turning to ignore him and get back to work. “So what are you making then? Can I help?!” He grinned, and picked up the jar of dried scarab wings she had arranged on the desk, hovering it over the cauldron. “No! What are you... “ Yoru grabbed his hand and pulled it away “you can’t just add whatever you want!” she glared at him, annoyed that he had left the sorting so easily but now wouldn’t leave her alone. “Why not? Isn’t that what makes it fun?” He leaned up casually against the table, clearly looking as if he were enjoying himself. She sighed, wishing a fond farewell to the peace and quiet she had envisioned her evening to be as he jumped up to sit on the tabletop. “I need this for school so no you can't 'help', just go away” she tried to ignore him again, and did so semi-successfully despite him moving the ingredients just out of reach every time she tried to grab one. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” she snapped, irked that he was still hellbent on making her night more difficult than it needed to be. He leaned back on the table, arms stretched out behind his head. “Nah, I’ll leave when I’m bored. I wanna see what you’re making” he leaned forward, putting his head in his hands and ginning at her. She rolled her eyes again, finally seeing something worth paying attention to at the ceremony. “The sorting is over, your twin is looking for you. You should probably go”. He frowned at her, pouting “How do you know I have a twin?” Yoru took a deep breath, at the end of her patience. “I can see him, I’m watching the ceremony too” She opened her left eye and pointed to her cloudy black iris. “He looks pretty worried…” she lied, hoping to make him leave faster. He burst out laughing, rocking back and forth so happily Yoru wondered if he was going to fall off the table. “Hahaha you’re funny Fugu-chan, Jade wouldn’t be worried about something like that, he’s used to it. I do wanna see the dorm though, so bye!” He hopped off the desk and sauntered out the door.

Yoru was dumbfounded, the boy had hit her like a whirlwind, she’d never been so annoyed with a stranger so quickly and she hadn’t even learned his name. Was this really what Crowley meant when he told her to make friends? Being interrupted and ignored for an hour while she was busy? She wondered if all the new students were going to be that invasive and overwhelming. Lost in her thoughts, she began the finishing steps to what would hopefully complete her potion. The door slammed open, Yoru fluffing her feathers once again at the sound. “Hey Fugu-chan, you live here right?” She turned around slowly and nodded, wary that any quick movements may be an invitation to rejoin her. “Okaaaaaaayy, I’ll come play again later then! Bye for real this time” he sang, waving behind him as he raced towards the mirror chamber. She could see the students disappearing back to their dorms, knowing that she was likely to run into Crewel if she didn’t pack up quickly. She finished adding the last few ingredients, feverishly stirring the concoction as it simmered, she could test its effects in her room. She heard footsteps outside, hyper aware that if Crewel caught her in the storage room again without permission he’d be furious and order her to clean it every day after classes for the next month. She gathered her things and flew out the upper window as the door opened, Crewel only catching a glimpse of her feathers during her hasty retreat. He sighed, knowing that the combination of the new students and Yoru’s determination to not follow his rules would eventually be the reason he no longer had to bleach his hair. 

She arrived back in her room the same moment that the boy who had spent his evening annoying her reached his twin. “Ahhh Floyd, I had worried you’d gotten lost and your legs had given out. We thought we might find you all dried up somewhere” Jade teased. Floyd began to complain before their banter was lost in the depths of the mirror as they transported themselves to Octavinelle dorm. Yoru disengaged her Unique Magic, happy to have at least learned the boy's name, and was ready to test the potion she hoped she’d been able to perfect. She wanted to impress the teacher right off the bat, alchemy and potion making was one of the only kinds of magic she COULD do, and she wanted to make an impression. She got to work testing her potion of extreme dehydration on a collection of plants and bones she’d collected in her room, excited about what it could mean for her future. 

***

Jade handed Floyd the robe he’d so unceremoniously thrown off during the sorting once they arrived back to their room. “Hmmm, you seem to be in a good mood.” Jade commented, watching Floyd make himself at home in his side of their room, throwing his clothes everywhere before dropping comfortably onto his bed. He nodded and smiled at Jade “I met a bird! She seems fun!” Jade looked at him curiously, “Oya? A bird girl on campus? Perhaps she is related to the headmaster… that could be useful…” he muttered to himself, hanging his ceremony clothes carefully in the closet, “For now Floyd, there is a party in the dormitory lounge, get dressed we want to make a good impression” He looked over at Floyd, who had curled up around his pillow facing the wall “Nah, I don’t wanna. I’m tired now”. Jade sighed, Floyd was being as fickle as ever, it was going to be a long night, he supposed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Floyd is a terror and he is forever annoying to write, but I love it. As always, thank you Azu for letting me borrow WNA parts!


	3. Friendship is hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making friends is a pain in the ass, but at the end of the day, not such a bad thing after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big warning for self-mutilation on this one. If you don't wanna read that part you're done after the meeting of the board game club.
> 
> As always, thank you Azu for letting me borrow Yaga and Agatha- please go check her out @walpurga-nacht-academy on tumblr

The witch towered over Yoru, oozing an aura that she could only describe as grimy. She hadn’t spent a lot of time near the Alchemy witch, and hadn’t realized how imposing she was. “What is this you’ve brought before me? A potion for eternal sleep? Perhaps an elixir of eternal life? Ehehe, nothing I haven’t seen yet Crow Meat. So what have you brought?” the Crone laughed, peering into her face. Yoru stood before Frau Perchta Yaga with her heart in her throat, potion cradled in her hands. The giant woman stood before Yoru, ancient and gnarled, reaching a deft hand towards the flask she held. “Dehydration” Yoru said firmly, proud of what she’d been able to accomplish. The old witch cackled, taking it from her hands “perhaps this is what will finally quench my thirst ehehe” she giggled, dropping a few drops in her mouth. Yoru reached out to stop her, but she was too nimble for such an old woman and turned away before she could reach her. “Delicious, delicious. Now let us see how this is meant to work young Crow Meat” she cackled again, dropping a number of drops on a candle on her desk. It shriveled and cracked as the potion hit it, the moisture in the wax evaporating to nothing. “How delightful, and what does a young witch plan to use this on?” Yaga asked, a grin spread across her face. Yoru couldn’t meet her gaze so contorted in amusement to the point it was nearly grotesque “...myself” she muttered, rubbing the back of her head. Yaga stared at her for a moment before letting out her loudest laugh yet. “You wish to wither the bones of man!? The Crow Meat means to play with the hands of fate, ahh youth, there is still much time for suffering...yes” She handed the flask back to Yoru, quietly chuckling to herself. “Does...this mean I pass?” She asked curiously, for all the talking the old witch had done, she never mentioned a grade. Yaga locked eyes with her and grinned “the Crow Meat should not be concerned with such petty things if she truly wishes to impress hehehe, I will expect you on the weekend however, I wish to taste a potion that would wither any man's heart and it does take many hours to brew, you seem like you may be able to provide.” She chuckled waving Yoru away “And do say hello to Crowley for me” she cackled again and shuffled off. Yoru watched her leave wondering what she had done wrong with her potion for the woman to have drunk some of it and show no signs of distress. She’d touched some herself and her nail had dried up and fallen off almost immediately. Yoru ambled out of the alchemy class set to find where the other classes she had wanted to spy on were held. Even though she wasn’t able to attend in person, proximity may be helpful if she did find herself with questions. 

At noon she met with her dorm leader to exchange the rest of her work and get her assignments for the following week. It wasn’t an ideal setup but it was better than nothing. The campus was different from NRC with so many more secrets waiting to be explored. Yoru used as many crows as she could manage to observe every corner of the campus, watching her fellow students mill about, discussing the upcoming school year. She wanted to go into the other dorms to look around but had been told that, without being expressly invited she wouldn’t be allowed in, and without any friends she wasn’t about to be invited anytime soon. Yoru sighed and made her way back home, she’d have to continue her remote exploration of the campus another time. She wanted to get to work on her new assignments to give herself time to solve why her potion hadn’t affected the Alchemy teacher in any visible way. Crowley found her muttering nearly buried in books when he knocked on her door “Ahhh my Nugget, already so hard at work!” He boasted, putting a hand to his chest. She shook herself out of her trance and looked at him “Is it dinner? Oh, my Alchemy teacher says hi, I guess you know her?” she said, standing up and stretching out. She’d been sitting hunched on her floor for hours now. “Oh? Crowley mused “Whoever could that be?” He led the way back downstairs to their kitchen where one of the school ghosts had prepared their meal. “Goes by Yaga, she’s pretty strange but seems to know a lot of stuff”. Crowley missed a stair and nearly fell down the rest of them “Umm... Yaga... Umm... yes… I know her...” He muttered, fidgeting furiously with his hands, he had gone pale. “Uhhh, did something bad happen between you? You’re all flustered” Yoru teased, poking him in the back as they walked. “NO, NOTHING HAPPENED, IT’S FINE, DON’T YOU WORRY ABOUT ME, NOPE, NO SIREE'' he furiously shook his head and hurried to the kitchen, leaving Yoru to wonder what the hell kind of history her dad seemed to have with half the staff of her school. 

Later that evening she set out to test where she’d gone wrong with her potion. She knew that in theory and in practice, she had done everything right but was still perplexed about her teacher. Crowley had mentioned a few years ago that Ignihyde dorm had perfected magical technology that a person didn’t need magic to use, so Yoru had set out to break in and test her potion with their computers as she wouldn’t be able to taste it herself to see what the old Crone had been talking about. She crept around the dorm trying to find a secluded corner away from everything where she could work in peace even if there were other students working. There were a few students around working on their projects, but they all ignored her. Yoru wasn’t sure if they were too absorbed in their work to notice her, or simply chose to ignore her. Crowley had told her that most students in Ignihyde weren’t big on socialization, and to Yoru, that seemed like the ideal place to be. She spotted a darkened alcove near what she assumed was the back of the dorm laboratory and scurried towards it, stopping dead in her tracks when she got close enough to realize it was already occupied. Unfortunately, the student in the space had heard her coming and turned to stare at her, eyes wide. Yoru met his gaze, hoping he wouldn’t raise the alarm that there was a strange bird skulking around the dorm at midnight. The minutes ticked on with them locked in a silent battle of awkward will, neither of them really sure how to proceed with their interaction. The boy nodded slightly, his fiery hair bobbing along with his head, relaxing his hands that he’d tucked up to his chest as a smaller fire haired boy Yoru hadn’t noticed earlier giggled. Yoru returned the nod and decided to work in the space adjacent to him, he didn’t seem keen on tattling, or even talking to her at all. That was a nice change of pace from her previous run-in with Floyd. Despite having some difficulty getting started on the tablets available to her, it wasn’t long before she was able to get into a rhythm testing out new potion simulations that could hopefully answer her questions. Dawn cracked over the horizon before she realized the time and kicked herself remembering that she had to return to school to have the extra lessons with the Alchemy witch. She groaned as she gathered her things from her room and made her way back to Walpurga Nachts campus, counting the hours until she’d be able to get some sleep in, 

“Crow Meat! You seem tired! Why don’t you hop in my pot and have yourself a little nap while we wait '' Yaga said ominously when Yoru arrived yawning. She looked at Yaga’s cauldron, marveling at the size of it. If she wanted she WOULD fit… but didn’t trust the old hag to not actually cook her. There were a few other witches in the room, Yoru wasn’t able to recognize them all so she suspected they weren’t all first years like her. In fact, she did see the student that laughed at her during the entrance ceremony standing near Yaga, completely dwarfed by the older woman wearing what seemed to be a forced smile. Yoru wondered if the smile was because she was nervous being so near to Yaga or if that was simply how she looked. Yaga swept her arms over the room before beginning her speech “Today I’d like to taste a potion that will turn a man's heart to ice, it’s flavour best be refreshing, I tire of the same boring drivel day after day” she told them, not offering any further instructions before sitting back to watch the group of girls. Yoru thought for a moment… something that would taste good? But turn a heart to ice? Maybe her sense of taste was broken, she already seemed to have an iron stomach. Some sort of freezing potion… Yoru knew that the standard potions to cause frostbite and the like wouldn’t be good enough “Um, Professor Yaga, can I go get a few things from home?” Yoru asked, getting an idea “Oh? The Crow Meat seeks to run away so early? Hehehe how disappointing” She laughed, the small girl with pointed teeth laughing alongside her, already having started on her own potion. Yoru rolled her eyes at the pair of them “No, I have an idea but I don’t see the ingredients I need here so I need to go get them. Can I leave and come back?” She asked, annoyed. Yaga smiled at her, bearing her yellowing teeth at her “Of course you can flee if you’d like, the clock is ticking Crow Meat, best you return before my mood sours”. Yoru nodded and flew off back to the mirror to take her back to Nightraven.

“Sam!” She nearly shouted, startling the few NRC students who were awake early and already visiting the shop. “Ahh my favourite little demon-chan has come to visit so early!” Sam said happily welcoming her to the shop as the other customers eyed her curiously “Got any icicle mushrooms? I need some” Yoru said quickly, Sam smiled at her, chuckling softly at her bluntness. “Such an odd request for early in the morning, but of course what you seek is IN STOCK NOW!” with a flourish he produced the mushrooms, gently handing them to her. “Perfect, thanks Sam. Charge it to my dad, I don’t have anything on me right now” Flying out the door leaving him waving at her back. She returned to the classroom and got to work on her potion, making sure to not accidentally bump any of the other students with her wings. Frost on it’s own wouldn’t be enough, but with the addition of the mushrooms she was sure she would be able to concoct something to satisfy Yaga’s request. The old witch shambled around the room peering into cauldrons while cackling and making comments that, by all standards, made no sense. “So now Crow Meat, what have you made with your little mushrooms today?” She asked, scooping a spoonful out and tasting it. Yoru made a mental note to ask Crowley what the hell this woman was that let her drink a potion that should kill her so easily. “Ahaha!” She laughed, licking her lips “How delightful! Is that… mint I detect?”. Yoru nodded “Yup, figured it would help the flavour without affecting any of the other ingredients. You said you wanted it to be delicious” Yoru met her gaze, challenging the older witch to tell her she was wrong. Yaga stared down at her before bursting into shrieking laughter “How interesting indeed, perhaps I shan’t cook you quite yet” she muttered, moving around the room again to continue investigating the other potions. Yoru watched, writing down notes as the other students explained their concoctions, hoping they would be dismissed soon. It was nearly dinner by the time the students were dismissed, Yoru having learned many things about potions and that the small girl that had laughed at her at the entrance ceremony seemed to be named Agatha. She had wanted to ask her why she laughed but decided she was too tired at the moment to get into a fight, plus, she seemed close with Yaga and Yoru wasn’t sure how the old witch would take to a fight breaking out in her class. That was a problem for another time. 

“Hey dad, what the hell is Yaga?” Yoru asked when she landed in the living room windowsill. Crowley slopped the tea he was drinking down his shirt in his haste to stand up “AH LOOK AT THE TIME, I REALLY MUST BE GOING! SORRY NUGGET YOU’LL HAVE TO FIND DINNER YOURSELF TONIGHT I AM SIMPLY TOO BUSY TO COOK!” he all but shouted as he hurried out the front door, leaving an annoyed Yoru in his wake. “At least answer the question you shitty old man” she grumbled to herself before ambling upstairs to fall into bed to finally rest. It was dark when she woke, there was no hint of the sun yet so Yoru figured it must be around 3am. She showered quickly and flew back to the mirror chamber to get herself back to Ignihyde dorm. In addition to the dehydration potion, the freezing potion should have killed her teacher but was stomached with a smile. All the more to research. She followed the familiar path to the back corner, noticing the same blue haired ghoul looking boy working away in his corner. They nodded at each other and set back to work on their own projects, ignoring each other completely. The cycle continued for weeks, visit Walpurga Nacht on Fridays to turn in and collect any new homework, Saturdays she’d meet with the teacher who Yoru was now sure was immortal and try to kill her with the potion of the day. Nearly every day was spent avoiding Floyd who was determined to catch her and nearly every night was spent ignoring the boys with the fire hair. The younger of the two seemed much more social, the glances she stole of the pair telling her he seemed to be a robot. Yoru was curious about his body but she’d been enjoying the company of working near someone without interruption she didn’t want to endanger it by asking questions that were probably really rude. 

Yoru could feel a pair of eyes burning a hole in the back of her head. She’d retreated to her usual alcove in the Ignihyde dorm but she’d been having more trouble with the tablet than she had been before, and had spent the last 10 minutes furiously tapping on it to try and get it to work “Are you going to keep muttering under your breath about how shit I am at this or are you going to come over and help?” She finally said, turning to glare at the fire headed boys. “What are you even trying to do?” the older one snarked, shuffling over to her to look at the tablet. “I need to run some scenarios with a few of the potions I have here cause I can’t test them on anyone, but this stupid thing won’t work” She complained, tapping the screen again. He looked at the tablet with it’s red flashing warning that max login attempts had been reached and she would be locked out and stared at her. “.........You got locked out. That’s why it’s not working, amateur” he giggled shuffling his feet to go back to his corner. She glared at him and grabbed his shoulder, stopping his retreat. “So help me get it working” he looked at her hand on his shoulder and tried to brush it away, a look of distaste plastered on his face. “You just need to wait half an hour before it unlocks, then enter your password. That’s it” he said, stepping out from underneath her hand and shuffling away, she followed him, breaching their unspoken ‘this is your side of the room, this is mine’ protocol. The younger boy looked on curiously, floating a few inches off the ground. “I don’t have a password though” She said, fidgeting with the tablet in her hands. He rolled his eyes and shook his head at her “so how did you even login before? You can’t just GO on these tablets without a login” Yoru shrugged, trying not to be distracted by the younger boy playfully bouncing around behind the older. “no idea. I think dad set something up for me so I could use it but it won’t work anymore.” he stopped shuffling around his space, annoyed that she was invading it to fully look at her for the first time since they’d met. “Did you say your DAD set something up for you?” she shrugged again “yea, he said something like because we’re blood I wouldn’t need a login but it’s not working anymore” His eyes lit up and he grinned showing off an impressive row of pointy teeth normally hidden behind his blue lips. “Hehehehe, I know just the thing that’ll help. Come here, I need you to try and login to something with me ehehehe” he giggled, leading her to another tablet he had suspended in the air before the smaller boy. He tapped away on the screen before turning it to her, the grin still plastered on his face “Okay, all I need is for you to put your finger right there…Ortho… this might be just what we needed ehehehe...” Yoru raised an eyebrow but did as she was instructed, she really didn’t know anything about computers, and if this ghoul was going to help her she’d go along with whatever he asked for. 

“Hehehehe this is good... Now I can get into the school security systems without tripping any magic alarms the headmaster may have set up... Ehehhehee” The boy giggled to himself tapping away furiously on his tablet. His fingers were a blur, Yoru couldn’t even keep track of what he was doing… not like she understood any of it anyway. “Nii-san! You’re ignoring your new friend!” Ortho chirped from beside him, smiling at Yoru. “So can you help me with my tablet so I can run more potion simulations?” she asked after a few moments, since the boy was still lost in the screen. He looked up at her, eyes wide and nodded. “It’s simple, you login like this, hit this button, there ya go” he ran through everything so quickly Yoru made him show her again but slower, she wasn’t good with technology so it took her a while to fully understand what she needed to do. After she found herself locked out for the third time that night and needed to ask for help the boy finally snapped “What’s your name? I’ll make you a damn profile so you can just login yourself so you can stop asking me to do it for you” he held his hand out for the tablet which she handed over with a scowl. “I’m Yoru. Crowley.” he looked at her and nodded, muttering to himself. “Figured out the Crowley part, heh, here. Password is N00B” Yoru took the tablet back from him with a smile “thanks fire dude” she said, content to retreat back to her corner of the room. “....It’s Idia” he muttered “Idia Shroud”. She nodded at him in acknowledgement, wondering if she just made her first friend as she contentedly tapped away on the screen. “Uhhh Idia… I think I broke it again” she whispered after nearly an hour “it won’t let me login again” Ortho laughed out loud as Idia looked over at her and rolled his eyes at her incompetence “what are you putting in for the password?” “Uhhh n-o-o-b” like you said. He sighed so loudly she thought he would deflate. “Capital N. Zero. Zero. Capital B” he tapped it in slowly for her, opening the program back up. “...That matters?” she asked, taking the tablet from his hands. He stared at her, unbelieving. “.... …. Obviously. How have you survived this long being this bad with technology?” He asked “I just don’t use it” she shrugged, tapping her way through the menu “I just needed it to test some potions I made recently since my teacher ate them and didn’t die. I wanna know what I did wrong with them” “How can you run potion simulations when you can’t even manage to login properly?” he sighed, walking back to rejoin Ortho for what must have been the dozenth time that night. Maybe she had jumped the gun on the friendship thing.

**

Yoru woke up late, it was the first Saturday of the new month designated for the Walpurga Nacht students to visit the Nightraven College campus so there were no extra lessons with Yaga. She’d grown accustomed to being away all day Friday and Saturday, and was at a bit of a loss for what to do with herself this particular Saturday. More than ever she didn’t want to leave her room as there were double the usual amount of students on campus. To pass the time she stayed in her room reading through the most recent book of rare magical plants she’d been able to get her hands on. Near noon she decided to take a break to try and get some information on the subtleties of socialization, outside of her budding friendship with Idia and Ortho and her one-sided interactions with Floyd, she wasn’t sure how to go about making new friends and was hoping to pick up some tips. The longer she watched the students the more confused she became, how the hell did everyone act so casually with people they just met or barely knew? She sighed, watching the students banter comfortably with one another before her attention was stolen by a familiar schoolmate of hers, apparently determined to bother the crows. Not wanting any harm to come to them, Yoru launched herself out her bedroom window to stop her before any damage could be done “What the hell are you doing?” she barked, dropping from the sky behind Agatha who had been trying to reach into a nest. The smaller girl looked at her, peering out from her side swept bangs that completely covered one eye “....lost….. Something…. Important…. Crow… might.. Have it” Yoru snarled at her and pulled her hand away, no one had any business messing with the crows, even if they did have the object mentioned. “There’s nothing in that nest except a few eggs, so get your greasy little hands out of there” Agatha withdrew her hand, glaring at Yoru “if… Crows… don’t have.. It...where… could it… be?” she asked, slinking away. Yoru rolled her eyes, wanting to leave the strange girl to search on her own, but she knew if she left she’d probably disturb more nests even though Yoru told her there was nothing in them. She sighed loudly “what did you lose? I can probably find it” She crossed her arms and glared down at the tiny girl waiting for her rasped answer. “Marble… from…. Big bro… very… special… to me” Yoru rolled her eyes again, annoyed that she’d gotten so little useful information. “Size? Colour? Anything particular that stands out on it?” she sighed, searching through the crows with both of her eyes to see if she could spot it anywhere. “Round… silver...little bit….green….about..this big...” Agatha held her fingers together showing the size of a single madol. Yoru nodded along to her recounting the marbles properties and slumped her shoulders. “Ugh. I think i found it… but… Ugh” She sighed, disengaging her Unique Magic in one of her eyes to look at Agatha, whose toothy smile had reached her eyes. “Come on, lets go get it back… ugh I don’t wanna see that guy… guhhhhh” she complained, grabbing Agatha by the upper arms in her feet and flying across campus to where the thief was playing with the marble. She felt Agatha stiffen below her not wanting to be dropped, Yoru grinned, she hadn’t dropped anyone yet, and didn’t plan to start now. 

They landed a few feet from Floyd, who was laying under a tree throwing the marble in the air and catching it repeatedly. “Hey, hand over the marble. She dropped it” Yoru said, gesturing to Agatha who stood slightly behind her, glowering at Floyd. “Ugh… the… worst….. Guy…” she muttered and Yoru laughed in agreement. Floyd glared at them and sat up. “Nah, I don’t want to. I found it, so it’s mine now” he shrugged, shoving the marble in his pocket. “It’s… not…. Give.. it..back” Agatha growled, her voice sounding as if it had been grated across stones. Yoru glared down at him and held her hand out for it. He stood up and stepped towards them, returning the glare. She’d spent so long running away from him every time he was near her she’d forgotten how tall he was. “Haaah? I already said I’m keeping it, go away” he said, trying to wave them off. Yoru met his glare and continued to hold out her hand. “The marble. Don’t make me take it from you” she said angrily. A grin spread across his face and he took another step towards the girls “what’ll you give me for it? I don’t need this junk anyway” “not…. Junk…. Very… special…” Agatha growled stepping up to glare at Floyd with her hands outstretched for her treasure. Yoru sighed and rolled her eyes “Do I look like I have anything to give you? What could you want for a stupid marble anyway?” “not…stupid…” Agatha grumbled, shooting a glare at Yoru. His grin widened as he leaned into Yoru’s face to look at her, bearing his pointed teeth “hehe I wanna know where you live, Fugu-chan. I wanna come visit” Yoru took a half step back and raised her eyebrow, a wry smile making it’s way up her face. “Deal”. Floyd smiled and clapped his hands together. “Yaaaay!” He took the marble out of his pocket and lobbed it towards Agatha, who snatched it out of the air immediately, cradling it in her hands. Yoru chuckled, lifting off the ground, grabbing Agatha by the arms again to fly her away from Floyd. “I live with Crowley” she laughed, taking off. “Heeeeeyyyy that’s not a real answer!!!!” Floyd whined behind them as they laughed at him. Yoru dropped Agatha in the courtyard near the entrance to campus, not knowing where the girl had planned to spend the rest of her day now that she was no longer bothering the crows. “Don’t drop stuff around here, there’s a good chance you’ll never see it again” she said flatly, flying back to her room, still chuckling at how she got one over on Floyd. Crowley didn’t advertise where he lived, so she was sure she’d be safe from the boy prying into her business at every opportunity. As she flew in through her window she saw Agatha greet Sam at his shop, they seemed quite friendly… was that who she meant by big bro? Yoru made a mental note to ask Sam about the strange girl later. They shared the extracurricular potions class with Yaga, but Yoru still hadn’t really found a reason to talk to her otherwise. 

**

“Ah Floyd Leech!” Vargas shouted across the field where class 2-E assembled for their flying lessons “You’ve come to join us today for some extra fitness! Just because you’re a guest in my class today doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on you!” he boasted looking around at his class, wishing they were a little more spirited. “Ahh Floyd, most unfortunate you’ve chosen to join us today, Vargas-sensei has determined our class is behind in flying and has introduced a more strict training regime” Jade whispered to him, dreading the upcoming class with their overenthusiastic teacher. “Eeehhhh? It’ll be fine, Kingyo-chan is here too, so if I get bored with flying he’ll play with me!” Floyd laughed, rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet grinning at Riddle who was pointedly ignoring him. Flying had never been either of the twins best subject, and the class quickly fell apart with Floyd there to disrupt it at every opportunity. He’d gotten bored of flying fairly easily, and had spent the majority of the class switching between laughing at Jade for barely getting off the ground and trying to catch Riddle on his broom. After another failed attempt to catch Riddle, Floyd tumbled off his broom and landed flat on his back at Vargas’s feet. “Man, I suck at this…” he whined, sitting up with a sigh. “Now Leech-kun! I know you can do better than this! What can I do to motivate you to reach higher!?” Vargas cheered. “Eugh, I don’t wanna do this anymore…” he paused, getting an idea. “If you tell me where the headmaster lives I'll try again...” Vargas looked at him curiously before bursting into laughter “An odd request, but one I can grant! Up you get, Leech-kun! Greatness awaits!” Floyd heard Jade chuckle from a few feet away where he was merely standing with his broom, hovering only when Vargas looked in his direction. He sighed and completed a few more laps in the air, managing to hold on by the tips of his fingers a few times rather than falling off completely whenever he felt himself slip. “GOOD WORK EVERYONE!” Vargas shouted at the end of class before reminding them about the importance of eating a properly balanced meal and a good night's rest. Floyd hung around at the end of class as everyone left throwing weary looks over their shoulders at him, any time he attended a class that wasn’t his own he managed to make a scene. “Ahh Mr. Leech! You did well today, very good flying! If only your brother had your enthusiasm!” He said happily, patting Jade on the back “Ahh my apologies professor, I simply am still getting used to being on land, it’s too much to expect me to master the air as well” He said quietly, stepping out of reach. Vargas took a step towards Floyd, beaming “Now, you wanted to know where Crowley lives? There’s a cabin in the woods behind campus that he and his daughter live in!! I don’t know what you plan to do with the information, but be alert if you go to visit! He’s most protective of those woods!” Floyd grinned and thanked the PE teacher, joining Jade in his retreat to the mirror chamber. “Oya? Floyd you look like a cat who's just caught a mouse they’ve been chasing for weeks…or perhaps caught the bird he’s been chasing for weeks fufufufu”. Floyd laughed and took off running towards the woods behind campus, he’d seen them before, but hadn’t ever explored since there were always more interesting things to do. 

It wasn’t long before Floyd came across the cabin tucked away in the depths of the forest. He approached it slowly, not sure if the headmaster had set up any sort of security or just trusted that students wouldn’t normally come this way. He spotted an open window on the second floor at the back of the house and grinned to himself. The way the trees had grown near the house and the way the ledge jutted out would make for perfect hand holds. He’d been practicing parkour recently to get used to his human body, and Yoru had been an excellent target so far. Every time he’d gotten close to her she’d flown away and the chase would start anew. The cottage window would be a piece of cake. He swung into the room, landing lightly on his feet and looked around. There were books strewn around the whole room, a closet door stood open, clothes on the hangers and floor alike. The bed was unmade, books tucked into the covers. “Ehe~ Found you, Fugu-chaaan” He sung as he poked around Yoru’s room to rifle through her things before following the sound of the shower into the bathroom to go talk to her.   
The door was already open, so he let himself in and sat on the floor near the curtain to the shower area “ne Fugu-chan, do you always leave your window unlocked?” he heard her sigh from behind the curtain. “......guess you found me.” she complained, resting her head against the wall of the shower knowing that she’d never know a moment of peace now that Floyd had figured out where she lived. “Huh? You told me to come visit, what’s why you told me you lived with the headmaster right?” he said brightly “.....I didn’t, but whatever. What do you want?” she groaned, hoping he’d leave soon. “Eeeeeh? I just got here and you already want me to leave? How rude. You’re worse than Azul!” He launched into a long winded complaint about how Azul had been so strict and controlling ever since they opened Mostro Lounge and how he had to do all sorts of boring work and it was no fun at all. Yoru sighed again, trying to tune him out to continue her shower as he rambled. 

“Why are you even telling me any of this? I don’t know who Azul is or what Mostro Lounge is. I don’t care” She shook her head from inside the shower, hoping if she was rude enough he’d get the hint and leave her alone, even though it hadn’t worked before. “wait Fugu-chan what’s that smell?” He asked as she finished washing her hair. “...my shampoo? Why?” she took a step back as he reached his hand through the curtain and made to grab for it “let me see it”. She stared at his fingers grabbing for the shampoo she still held in her hand before handing it to him. The hand retreated and he was silent for a moment “Oh. This smells nice. Can I have it?” he asked. Yoru stared at the blurred shape beyond the curtain, annoyed. “What? No! Give it back, make your own!” she barked. He let out a long whine before his hand appeared again through the curtain, shampoo clutched in his fingers. “Well fine Fugu-chan, don’t share. I’m going home, this is boring. I’ll come visit next time I get bored with other stuff” Yoru rolled her eyes “don’t” she muttered, watching his shadow depart. Yoru wondered how the hell he managed to find her. It had been ages since she told him she lived with Crowley...was he the one that told him? She would have to ask when she saw him next. 

*

“Idia I need your help” Yoru sighed sitting down near him in the darkened dorm corner. He shuffled his feet and stared at her, Ortho watching curiously from behind him. Outside of the occasional fixing of her tablet, they hadn’t talked much, so her suddenly asking a favour was a lot. He nodded waiting for her to speak “...Is there somewhere in this dorm I can hide? Floyd Leech found my house and I don’t want to deal with him right now so I need somewhere quiet to go” Idia stared at her for a moment before responding “just get a better security system? What sort of specs do you have in the one you have now?” Yoru’s jaw dropped a little, unsure of what Idia was referring to “Specs? What security system?? What does that mean? How do I get a specs?” she asked him. “Ugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” He complained, rubbing his hands over his face peering at her through his fingers. “Why are you like this?” Yoru rolled her eyes at him waving away his complaints casually “look, we don’t have a security system, no one has ever come over before uninvited. Normally students don’t just break into the headmasters house so it’s never been a problem!” “Nii-san! We can help!” Ortho said brightly, hopping down from the too tall chair he was sitting in. “Ortho don’t-” Idia started, but it was too late “You can stay in Nii-san’s room! Come on! I’ll show you where it is!” he floated to Yoru and grabbed her hand, dragging her further into the depths of the dorm. “Ortho nooooo” Idia whined quietly, he didn’t want guests in his room of all places and followed behind them groaning the whole time about invasion of privacy. “Oh. Your room kinda reminds me of mine. Nice” Yoru said, walking over to his bookshelf to see what sorts of things he had, getting confused when she didn’t recognize any of the titles on the shelves. “What is this?” she asked, pulling a light novel off a shelf to flip through it. Idia lunged forward to snatch it from her hands, clutching it to his chest “Don’t touch things that aren’t yours! You wouldn’t understand this series if you don’t even understand basic computer terms! If you want something to read you’d have to start with something much different, here!” He said, shoving a different book into her hands. She read the synopsis, it seemed the novel was meant to be a thriller of sorts, though there were monsters involved somehow. “You don't mind then?” she asked as he shook his head with a defeated sigh. She sat down on the floor near the bed and began to read. It had been ages since she’d read anything that wasn’t a textbook, it was a nice break. 

Idias room had become her near daily retreat. She’d finish her school work, and at the slightest hint that she was going to be interrupted by Floyd wherever she happened to be working she made the retreat to Ignihyde where she was able to mind her business. Any time the other students saw her sneaking around, they chose to ignore her since she never seemed to bother anyone. Idia himself often ignored her while she was hiding in his room, and they merely coexisted in silence. It was quite peaceful. He had tried to teach her how to play video games a few times, but every attempt ended in disaster, for whatever reason, Yoru could never really grasp the technology well enough to play. “...Do you at least play board games?” Idia asked, frustrated at yet another failed attempt. Yoru nodded “Yea, I can do board games. I used to play all the time with my dad growing up, but we haven’t played in a while” Idia nodded along “He’s too busy huh… I feel that…” he muttered to himself more than her as Ortho nodded along “Hmm? No, he asks but I’ve been working on school stuff constantly for a while now and haven’t had time to join him” Idia seemed to pout a little and looked over at Ortho, who nodded enthusiastically “well you should join the board game club, there’s only one other person besides us and there are some 4 player games we wanna try…” Yoru stared at him, not sure what the warm feeling growing in her chest was. “Umm.. maybe soon? I think I’m really close with my dehydration potion and really want to finish it so I can get rid of…never mind…I should go, uhh can I come by again tomorrow?” she asked not looking at the two of them, wondering if she’d said too much about herself. Idia and Ortho nodded together, Idia retreating to his computer and putting on headphones to jump into a game. 

She took her time getting home trying to process the evening. She’d actually been invited to something… on purpose too! It was a strange feeling, but not unwelcome. It made her feel all fuzzy and warm inside, something she hoped she could get used to. As she neared the house, she saw that her bedroom light was already on “EEEUUUGGGGHHHH” she said to herself flying up to her windowsill already knowing that she was about to be very annoyed. Floyd grinned at her when she landed “Fugu-chan! Your writing is so messy, I can barely read it!” he complained. He was laying in her bed, holding her Alchemy log in front of him reading through its entries. She ripped the book from his hands, flipping through the pages to make sure he hadn’t damaged it in any way “Why won’t you leave me alone?” she snapped at him, retreating to her desk to keep a safe distance away from the boy and his habit of invading personal space. Floyd sat up in her bed and rubbed his head “Huh? Cause you’re fun!” he smiled at her scooting closer to the edge of the bed. He opened his droopy eyes and met her glare “you don’t know that much about magic though do you? All those entries and you didn’t even mention using enchanted fire even once.” he waved a hand at her “you said you were good at this sort of thing and then go and make such a dumb mistake aha~!” She stared at him, her eyes wide. He was right, in every attempt to perfect her potion she’d never used magical fire and had settled for the standard fire she could produce with matches. “No way… could it really be that simple? I was only missing a few things… if that’s it… holy shit he’s right” she muttered, flipping through her notes of previous failed attempts. Floyd had stood up and moved towards her to see what she was looking at that he had missed in the journal when she raced to the window, launching herself into the air leaving him behind. 

She landed in the Ignihyde dorm in a rush, the students had an unspoken agreement to not disturb anyone else’s work area so she had left some of the potion in her usual corner for whenever she needed to run new tests. She ran a simulation with magical fire as a new component and for once got the results she had been aiming for. “Holy shit” she muttered to herself, racing back into the open to try and find someone that could make some fire for her in order to run a live test. There was a student at the end of the hall she’d never met but none of that mattered anymore, not when she was this close. “Hey, I need you to make me some magic fire” she grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around as he tried to cower from her. The boy wouldn’t meet her gaze and kept trying to pull free of her grip “No thanks I’m busy. Go away” he muttered, but Yoru didn’t have the patience to wait and tightened her grip. “Fire, or I rip your arm off” she threatened, dragging him back to her work station. The boy sighed and rolled his eyes, taking out his magical pen to light a fire for her under her impromptu potions setup. “That all?” the boy asked her shuffling away, she nodded, her eyes alight with the glow of success. It had changed. In all the tests she’d run with all the changes she made, nothing had made the potion go clear… this had to be it. She searched for something she could test it on before herself, not wanting to get too far ahead of herself. Yoru raced from the dorm back to her room where she grabbed a collection of bones she kept in her desk, not even realizing that Floyd had left. She was nearly vibrating with excitement by the time she returned to the dorm to complete her tests. A smear of the freezing potion she’d made for the extra Alchemy lessons around the sides and a few drops of the dehydration potion that was now completed should be able to get the results she wanted. She watched the bone wither in front of her eyes until it neared the frozen section. The decay stopped, in every other test she hadn't been able to stop the decay from spreading. She tapped the small bone with her finger and it cracked and fell away, the bone around the end with the freezing potion remaining intact. She tapped her nails on the desk in front of her breathing heavily. This was what she had been waiting for, these were the results she wanted. Another test, this time on a more dense bone, her breath caught in her throat as she watched the results repeat themselves. The larger bone needed a harder tap before splintering into pieces, but the temperature of the second potion had completely stopped the disintegration of the dehydrated bone. Yoru laid the two potions out in front of her, a grin plastered across her face before realizing she would need help with it for the attempt to be successful. There was no way she’d be able to apply the freezing herself and confirm it was in the right spots. She paused wondering if she could trust the random student she’d harassed before to help… no, too risky. She knew she couldn’t ask Crowley for help, she considered her options for a long while. If she asked Idia and Ortho for help, they would likely agree… but what if it made their friendship awkward? She’d finally gotten to a point where she was comfortable calling them friends, but a request like this might drive a huge stake right through the middle of it. She sighed and stood up, grabbing the completed potion vials in her hands before slowly making her way back home. She’d really have to weigh the chances they’d never talk to her again over her need to finally be more normal. She lay awake for hours trying to figure out which she wanted more. 

“Y-Yoru” Idia stuttered at her, he’d cornered her in the lab as she was musing about how to ask for his help with her wings. “Can you come to board game club with me tonight? Azul said he wants to meet you, and I want to play a game Ortho and I used to play as kids, but it’s a 4 person minimum…” he fidgeted with his fingers hoping she’d agree. Azul had been incredibly persistent about having Yoru join the club since Floyd had mentioned her to him, it was an excellent opportunity for him to befriend the headmaster's daughter. Yoru nodded slowly “I’ll come… but in exchange can you help me with something later? There’s something I really need to do but can’t do myself…” Idia looked at her curiously wondering why she was being so vague, maybe she was embarrassed about asking for help with the school tablets again. She breathed a sigh of relief, but was worried at what to expect at the club meeting. The only thing she knew of this Azul was whatever Floyd had rambled to her about, and that according to Idia, he could be a real bastard. “Ahhhh Yoru-san! I’m glad we have finally gotten a chance to meet, I’ve heard so much about you from both Idia-san and Floyd!!” Azul said with a smile and flourish when they entered the classroom where they were going to play. Yoru scowled and groaned. Great, another annoying guy who was clearly full of shit. She nodded in acknowledgement at him before he launched into a clearly pre-planned introduction “I am, of course, Azul Ashengrotto! Octavinelle 1st year, and owner of the newly formed Mostro Lounge! You must have heard of it by now, if you’d like to come by, I can offer you 500 madol off your first order!” She stared at him flatly, was he actually trying to sell her on his cafe 5 seconds after meeting? She sighed as Ortho giggled at his pompous delivery “Azul, you said you wouldn’t try and sell her anything if she came” Idia muttered, settling himself on one side of the table and setting up the pieces required to play. “I’m not selling anything, merely making an offer! I thought it was human custom to offer a gift when first meeting with someone?” he asked, oozing insincerity with every word. Yoru rolled her eyes and ignored him, sitting across from Idia with Ortho to her left as she set up her own pieces. It was a game she herself was familiar with, though she hadn’t played it in almost 10 years. The last time, Crowley had made professors Trein and Yule join them so they had the required number of players, but as Professor Yule had been forced to play he crushed Yoru’s hopes of victory almost immediately, the loss had left such a bitter taste in her mouth she hadn’t played since. She was rusty, and Idia took home an easy win over her and Azul. She stood up in the middle of Azuls’ monologue about how games with a large chance element were pointless as you can’t utilize a strategy and cut him off “You’re still okay with helping me?” She asked Idia, walking away from the table, her heart pounding in her throat. She couldn’t even manage to look at them as she asked. She’d been prepping for this eventuality for days, but was still worried about how it was going to feel. She’d watched the bones flake and crumble beneath her fingers and was worried what it would feel like when her own fell away. 

She led Idia back to her usual corner of the Ignihyde dorm, she’d prepared everything in advance, needing to keep everything a secret from Crowley so he didn’t intervene. He looked around wearily at the large garbage cans and bandages she had prepared. “Y-Yoru...what is it you need me to do?” he asked, a tremor in his voice. She took a deep breath before answering. “I need you to freeze the base of my wings...but be careful not to touch this with your hands, you’ll get frostbite…” Idia and Ortho both shuffled around uncomfortably, not wanting to know the answer “Yoru… what are you doing?” he stammered, taking the bowl of potion from her and looking into the icy blue paste that had frost forming around the edges. “Idia please… I need to do this...” she whispered not meeting his eyes, hoping he’d follow through with his promise. She heard him sigh as he scooped a glob of the paste onto the stick she’d used to mix it before smearing it on her back as requested. She gasped and pulled away from him before trying to relax back and not letting it bother her too much. It burned. She should have expected this, and frostbite was a small price to pay for the end product. Idia groaned and continued his work, making sure to completely surround the base of her wings with the potion. “A-anything else?” he frowned, stepping back from her and watching her struggle with the pain. “Umm…can you guys stay with me? You don’t need to watch.. But just in case…something happens...” she said, her teeth chattering. The cold had started to seep through her body and she couldn’t help but shiver. Idia sat down at a stool nearby and kept shooting covert glances her way, he didn’t want to watch, but he found it hard to look away. Ortho floated behind, holding onto Idias jacket. Their eyes grew wide when she produced a syringe of a clear potion they hadn’t seen before and carefully used it to drop a stream of it onto her wings. Yoru gagged and collapsed to the floor. It was worse than she thought it would be. She’d hoped the cold would make her numb to anything else, but she could feel the moisture leaving her bones as her feathers began to fall out. She was finding it hard to get air, she wondered for a moment if she were dying. “Umm.. Y-Yoru… was this supposed to happen?” She was crouched down, holding onto the edge of the table trying to find some stability, focusing on her breathing. “Y...yea… this is…. Exactly.. What …...was supposed… to happen… it’s… fine”. Her breathing became more laboured as her feathers fell to the floor and the bones began to shrivel. She sat on the floor to steady herself and grabbed one of her wings in her hand before ripping it upwards. The bone snapped with a loud crack, coming free in her hands. She vomited. Idia felt himself heave, he stood up and nearly passed out. If Ortho hadn’t been there to catch him he would have hit the floor. “I-I’m sorry Yoru I can’t watch this I gotta go” he leaned on Ortho as he shuffled away, Yoru couldn’t blame him for leaving. She took a deep breath and grabbed the second wing in her hands, yanking it free. She suppressed a scream, swallowing her bile. She curled her body around her legs, trying to stop her head from spinning. Yoru reached behind her to see how clean of a break she’d made, feeling sick again when she realized how much of the bone remained jutting from her flesh. She wrapped her hands around one of the shards pulling it as hard as she could, and felt it shatter in her hands. She knew that one had at least made it to her shoulder blade, the bone wasn’t as dry near the base, the cooling had worked as intended. She repeated the process with the other shards still remaining, feeling her own bones crumble in her hands as she ripped them from her body. Yoru laid panting on the floor, fragments of bones littering the space around her, blood seeping from her wounds. She hadn’t realized there would be this much blood involved. She pushed herself off the floor and grabbed for the bandages she’d brought, haphazardly wrapping them around her upper body, hoping she was covering the worst of her injuries. She vomited again, the bile mixing with the bones and blood already on the floor, in a daze she wished she had thought to bring a mop. She dragged herself to the garbage can and began to throw the discarded remains of her wings into the trash. Most curiously, the feathers hadn’t fully decayed, after they’d fallen from the bone they remained soft as ever. She was disoriented as she cleaned up, trying to scoop as much of her mess into the garbage as she could with her hands, using her feathers to absorb the remaining fluids on the floor. Yoru dragged herself off the floor and tried to stand, her head spinning in dizzying circles, she wasn’t sure if it was the pain or the blood loss giving her such a hard time but she knew she needed to get home and lay down before she passed out. 

It had been years since she’d used the front door at home, she collapsed into it before finding the strength to open it and drag herself upstairs. Her breathing was so faint she wondered if maybe she had died and she’d forgotten her body on the Ignihyde dorm floor. Her bed wasn’t that far away, she just had to make it without Crowley catching her. Once she recovered a bit she could fight with him about it, but not right now, not yet. She crawled up the stairs on her hands and knees, fighting back the urge to vomit again. She dragged herself into her bathroom to finally look at her handiwork. Clawing her way to standing she stood in front of the mirror, she was so pale she could have passed for a ghost. She washed her hands and unwrapped her bandages, letting them fall to the floor at her feet, bracing herself against the sink to turn and look at her back. They were gone. Her wings were gone. Sure, there would be some scarring, but she smiled to herself seeing that she’d finally be able to hide in plain sight, she’d managed to completely destroy the growth that had so grotesquely sprouted from her back. Yoru discarded her shirt on the floor with the rest of the bandages and began to re-wrap her wounds, taking more care to make sure that they were covered properly before collapsing into bed, a smile painted on her face. She curled around one of her pillows as sleep overwhelmed her, she knew she would be okay. It was the first day of a new life, one where she could exist outside her home without being stared at, one where she could move around unnoticed. She awoke in a daze mid afternoon, she had kicked her blanket off in the night and was drenched in sweat. The shock had worn off, just as had the numbing effect the cold had had. She still couldn’t feel the area directly around where her wings used to be, and wondered if the feeling would ever return or if the cold had sapped that from her. She pressed her face further into her pillow and tried to get back to sleep, but even the smallest movement sent forth waves of nausea that threatened to break free at any time. Through her daze she thought she heard someone in her room, and wondered if Crowley had come to tell her breakfast was ready. Floyd looked down at her in horror, he’d climbed in through her window ready to tease her into entertaining him as usual. He couldn’t help but feel a little queasy seeing her curled in bed, blood soaking through the bandages and into her mattress, wings nowhere to be seen “Fugu-chan...what the hell did you do?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> let the recovery begin!

Yoru groaned and tried to turn over, pain ripping through her with every small movement. “D-dad? Is it dinner?” She murmured, still trying to shake the fog clouding her thoughts that had settled in the previous night. Floyd looked down at her in contempt “Nooooooope~” he crossed his arms and waited for her to flip over to look at him. With a herculean effort, Yoru managed to roll flat on her stomach and turn her head to the side to look at him. “Oh... It’s you. Can you… help?” She breathed, pointing a shaky finger at her desk. “There’s… painkillers… top drawer. Can you get them.. For me?” She whispered, struggling to stay conscious. Floyd raised an eyebrow and looked over at the desk, wondering what other treasures she kept stashed away there. He sauntered over, happy to have permission to dig through her things. “This what you’re talking about?” He pulled out a small jar full of small white tablets and shook it at her. Yoru gave him the faintest of nods and held her hand out for them. Floyd continued to stare at her and leaned up against her desk, turning the jar over in his hands. “Hmmmm…. How bad do you want em?” he grinned at her as he placed a single pill on the edge of her desk. “It’s not thaaaat far, Fugu-chan. If you can pull your wings off you can probably crawl over here and get em” he laughed. She glared at him, she was weak. Too weak. She could barely move, let alone cover the space between her bed and her desk. She groaned and tried to pull herself off the mattress, a wave of nausea threatening to drown her. She managed to claw her way into a sitting position to face Floyd still grinning at her “You… are such...a bastard” she panted, trying to stand. Floyd responded with a laugh and a smile, still lounging up against her desk. Yoru tried to launch herself at him, using all the strength she had to stand but the effort was too much. She collapsed on the end of her bed, sliding half off the mattress. “Uhhh… Fugu-chan...it’s right here not on the floor” Floyd giggled pointing at the pill, and watched her stiff body slowly slide off the edge of the bed. “....Fugu-chan?” He crouched down to look at her, mouth hanging open, eyes rolled into the back of her head. “Well that’s no fun” He pouted to her unconscious body, pocketing the jar with the rest of the painkillers. “Hmmm I wonder what else she’s got in this desk” He giggled, digging through the drawers to see if there was anything else to catch his attention. He heard a soft thump and looked back to Yoru, she’d slipped from the bed, face buried into the floor. He sighed, pocketing one of her alchemy notebooks as he nudged her with his foot. “Hey Fugu-chan, are you alive?” A quiet groan escaped her “Ehhh good enough” he smiled, strolling to the window. With a final look back of her on the floor he hopped out the window, landing deftly on the grass whistling as he ambled through the forest looking for something better to do.

“Oya? You’re back early, Floyd” Jade purred as Floyd entered their dorm room. Floyd nodded and shrugged, taking the notebook from his inner jacket pocket and throwing it on his bed to read later. “Fugu-chan doesn’t have wings anymore and that’s boring” he whined, changing into his PE clothes. “Ahhh the bird clipped her wings so soon after you caged her, how unfortunate, I’m sure you’ll find someone else to entertain you” he chuckled, gently arranging the stones in the terrarium he was building. “Hmmm I guess so.” Floyd sighed, pulling his shirt over his head and rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh well. Ooh, I wonder if Umihebi-chan can teach me more dance moves today” he said brightly, nearly skipping from the room on the way to his club activities. Jamil sighed when Floyd bounded up to him and asked him to show him, again, how to properly do a headstand. “Floyd, this is the basketball club, we’re here to play basketball” Floyd deflated “Well I don’t wanna play basketball right now, so show me again” He demanded, trying in vain to stand on his head. Jamil sighed and crossed his arms. “No. If you break your neck that’s not my problem” He turned back to the rest of the club, ignoring the pouting Floyd. “Fiiiinnneeeeee” He said loudly, standing straight again “I’m not in the mood for this anyway, I'm leaving”. Floyd wandered aimlessly around campus trying to find something to do, wondering when he ended up in such a foul mood. Nothing seemed fun to him right now, and he wasn’t sure why. He spied a group of other first years hanging around and thought about going to bother them, but for some reason it seemed like too much work. “Ehhhhh I guess I’ll just go have a nap or something” He grumbled to himself meandering across campus before remembering that had been his plan in the first place until Yoru had ruined it. “Guuuuhhhhh Fugu-chan! Why’d you have to go and get all boring!!” He complained to no one, realizing he might as well just go home, he wasn’t in the mood to be anywhere else. 

** 

Yoru woke up with her face pressed against the floor, she was cold; her body stiff. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been on the floor. She raised her head and spied the single pill Floyd had left on the edge of her desk and knew she had to reach it if she wanted to get any rest. She crawled her way to the desk, finding it easier to drag herself across the floor than it was to sit up or stand. She used the desk drawers to claw her way to sitting, resting her head against its front as the room spun around her. She heard footsteps and braced herself for the fight she knew she was about to have. “Nugget! I heard you moving ar--” Crowley had burst into her room with his usual bravado, speaking before taking in the situation. When he finally saw her huddled up against her desk, wounds reopened and soaking fresh blood through her already sodden bandages he stopped. He sighed “In all my time as a father I never thought I’d see my sweet baby Nugget so distressed! Who did this to you?! I shall have words with them!” He boasted, crossing the room in 3 steps to crouch down next to her. Yoru glared at him, expecting him to berate her for getting herself so beat up. “Don’t… worry. I did it.... To myself...” she whispered, reaching for the painkiller. Crowley looked at her, heartbroken. “My Nugget...your wings! Did you truly hate them that much?” She nodded, shrinking down against the drawer face. He sighed “...If this is what my Nugget wants, who am I to say otherwise!” He declared, watching her laboured breathing, shaking hand still searching for the pill that seemed forever out of reach. She met his gaze and nodded, a small smile playing across her lips. Crowley let out a dramatic sigh and stood up with a flourish “A good father supports his Nugget, no matter what!!” He cheered “now let's get you all fixed up!” He clapped his hands and moved behind her, undoing her bandages to get a clear look at the ghastly wounds. She heard him sigh and the tinkle of keys as he worked his magic on her back. She felt a pinch between her shoulder blades, cold seeped outwards chilling her entire body. “There, all done!” Crowley whooped, clapping his hands together. “My little Nugget, all fixed up! I am just the kindest Papa! So supportive!” he lauded himself waiting for her to get off the floor. “There might be some stiffness, I suppose, but you’ll be fresh as pie tomorrow!” he laughed, holding out a hand to help her up. Yoru rolled her shoulders and was able to stand, the pain was gone. As mentioned, the stiffness remained but she could move without passing out. Her head was still spinning from the blood loss, but that would go away with time too. “That doesn’t even make sense, dad. Fresh as pie? Have you ever baked a pie before?” she laughed trying to stretch out as she stumbled to her bathroom to properly clean off. Crowley deflated a little “...well you know, fresh as…. fresh...things” he muttered. Yoru grinned, maybe she was being too hard on him, he had just saved her what was likely to be weeks of recovery. She paused in the doorway to look back at him. “Thanks dad, you really helped me out here” She smiled at him, puffed up and proud from her words. “Now, just don’t go hurting yourself anymore! I can only do so much, you know!!” He tried to lecture. She grimaced at him, knowing that this was just the start of what she had to do. Crowley frowned at her, hoping that her pained smile didn’t mean what he thought it meant.


End file.
